Comments on: Switcher's lament: The case against Mac

Beautiful hardware and a robust operating system don't trump apps and peripherals that don't work as they are supposed to.

It seems the Mac Community has hit ya pretty hard. I will say that you are expecting apples to be oranges (no pun intended). You got to walk into this with open arms and give it a shot. I was a die-hard PC user about 3 years ago and then my PC nearly exploded on my while trying to edit video, and I switched to Mac and loved the ease of editing. Sure, the transition was a bit rough, but I had things in my mind that motivated me: no longer need to buy anti-virus, don't need to worry about slowing down, it looks pretty, I can do the same stuff on it as a PC and more! I use Exchange as well for my college email and since Microsoft screwed students over with the student edition of Office, I have to use the old PPC 2004 version of Entourage to access my emails. Would I use Outlook if I had a PC? Regretfully, yes. I have always hated Outlook. I am uncertain if Exchange can be used on Mac Mail. I've been told yes, but the tech people on campus wont enable Mac users to use Mail on the server...which has a bad habit of crashing.

I guess what I want to say is that give the Mac a chance. Don't punish it for something it does well and you just aren't used to it doing that. You ARE using a different computer. There SHOULD be some changes. If you would like help understanding your mac, you can certainly contact me. I consider myself a Mac-savvy guy.

[pithenumber]

buy yourself an AV or someone might come knocking on your virtual door
Mac is hackable
No one I know is resistant from good social engineering either

[Shell Huber]

I've used windows since Windows 3.0.
I was fascinated with every upgrade MS came out with.
Spent endless hours with crashes. Loved it.
Then I realized then end product was what it all is about. If you telephone or car acted like your PC, most would burn it!
Be it a graphics file, music or whatever you are creating
(most people I believe create nothing. they can get by with a netbook0
October 2007 I bought a new high end Canon.
Files where large and my old PC's were really slow.
So, I thought, time o buy a new computer. Why not a Mac?
Sure, I had some teething problems, but after I worked it out all I do is my work.
No problems with my none apple backup drives with time machine or printer. Since then bought and Iphone, reformated my Ipod into HFS and even bought an Apple tv.

No going back!

[jeffthegeek]

wow I do have to say, you admit that having to buy new computers after a year is a Windows PC fact of life but consider a few minor hickups that are mainly from your insistence on using your Mac as a Windows machine are a valid "case against Mac"? Your Mac laptop will serve your for years.

I am a computer tech by trade. Worked for several all windows shops then got offered a job at a nearly all mac shop, I was concerned about the switch but I switched no problem. I wouldn't trade my mid level intel MacBook for the best power user Windows based machine on the market. Mac's are superior machines.

Some of the satalite branches are using old G3 beige boxes (1997) and even a few as old as the 6100's (1994). These are machines that are ancient by computer standards, yet they are still running just as fast as the day the were first installed.

[pithenumber]

this isn't a case against Mac, its a case against the switch being painless like apple says

[maxamy]

I made the switch from Windows to Mac last spring. I teach computers part time and have only taught the Windows interface. I am very impressed with mac and I wished the whole world would switch...ha..ha..ha. Then maybe mac wouldn't be as good if everybody had one. I still don't care for the iphoto importing process but maybe in time it will grow on me. I do agree that you cannot look at it from a WIndows perspective. Don't try to compare it to WIndows and you will appreciate the design better. I have been involved with computers since the mid to late eighties but never gave mac a try. Now I am glad I did. When I can afford it I will replace every computer in the house with macs. Vista is Crap.....notice the CAPITAL C......lol

[kristen-king]

I switched from PC to Mac about 18 months ago and I didn't have any problems. The keyboard shortcuts took a little getting used to since I basically live in Word, but otherwise, it was smooth and painless. When I purchased my Mac, I brought my PC in and had them move all of my files for me including music, e-mail, and calendar. It was incredibly easy, fast, and reasonably priced. And much cheaper than spending countless hours mucking things up before purchasing another OS for the brand new computer you just bought. ;)

I do agree that Entourage is sub-par, but it was simple to switch to Apple Mail on my own when I decided I didn't like it. Also, I was able to successfully customize the 3-pane view in Entourage before I ditched the program entirely, so I'm not sure why you're having problems.

Oh, and FWIW, there *is* a way in Skype to tell it not to launch on startup. I'm surprised you weren't able to find it. When Skype is in your dock, just right click on it and de-select "Open at Login." Bing, bam, boom -- done.

I think it would be to your benefit to stop trying to force your Mac to be like your PC and get familiar with the Mac way of doing things. It's really not hard if you allow yourself to do it. One place to start may be downloading a list of Mac Word shortcuts, since it sounds like that may be a big issue for you. Here's the one I love: http://tinyurl.com/8d35lu (this opens a Word doc; view online or DL an Excel file at http://tinyurl.com/8jx9ue). I found it by googling "mac word keyboard shortcuts." The info is out there. You just have to want it and be willing to use it instead of digging in your heels.

I hope you and your Mac can get on good terms.

[thebendds]

I can empathize. I'm been a Mac guy for 16 years, so of course to me it's second nature. But when my co-worker switched to a Mac after using Windows for years on our Exchange network, he was discombobulated.

It's too bad that a lot of 3rd party apps are souring your experience (coming from Outlook, Entourage is universally recognized as inferior). Hope fully you can come across some apps that enhance your experience. I'd recommend looking at Default Folder X, Adium, TextExpander, iStat Menus, Launch Bar and Perian to name a few.

Once last suggestion: learn the keyboard shortcuts. Yes, they are based on the Command key instead of the Control key. But to me, that has always been more ergonomic. I find my hand contorting to all kinds of weird positions when ever I try to use Control shortcuts on Windows.

[bonesbautista]

I do have a question for the author - when switching over, did you use the Mac's Migration Assistant? Every lunkhead I know that didn't use it when switching had problems with data. The people who switched that did use it haven't had one issue to date.

About your wife's opinion of iCal - I'm not fond of it either. FYI there's a solution - an inexpensive translator called YAI (You Are Invited) at the following link (disclaimer - I don't own it or have any stock and am not getting any kickbacks...):
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/email_chat/yai.html

[HunterA3]

I have a Mac running 10.5, a laptop running Vista, a PC running XP, a PC running Ubuntu 8.04, a laptop running Ubuntu 8.10, and a netbook running gOS 3. While they all have their shortcomings, non-homogenized programs really do work better under windows than any other platform.

I realize that Apple is doing it's best to create their own ecosystem of software to run on the Mac, but compaired to many 3rd party vendors offerings, Apples programs tend to be feature light making its shortcoming hard to deal with in a work environment. Given the down right cruel nature of the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials, fanbois should not get so ruffled when Apple is throwing stones in a glass house saying their product is better when it is clear that 3rd party apps are not the Mac's strong suit. Frankly I'm surprised that many others haven't spoken up sooner than Rafe has.

[ade333]

Hunter the main reason no others have spoken up is that Apple has been bankrolling every form of print and online media through an onslaught of ads. Now that their ad money has dried up, writers are finally getting the OK to be honest.

[professionaladventurer]

There is not a comment here that supports your version of a switch and experience.<P>
I would suggest you were not ready to switch, but hey now your wife has one more reason to ***** at you.
Sell 'em on craigslist to someone in Nigeria. Dude, you should get a Dell.

[millsd67]

Easy way to move iTunes from PC to Mac:

I recently switched from PC to Mac. I found the easiest way, is to use the back-up feature in iTunes to create a back-up on DVD (it will span multiple DVD's). Then put it in your Mac and it recognizes the DVD and asks if you would like to restore. It worked perfect, including my play lists, podcasts, and movies.

Rafe, would you please report back to all of us in another 3 or 4 months to see how you're doing then? Also, have you thought about VMware or Parallels? -You can run Outlook from there and have it feel as though it is native to your Mac. Just a thought.

[protagonistic]

"It seems that every day one of us will find something on the Mac that doesn't work as it is supposed to."

Is this the problem or is it that they don't work the way "you" think they are supposed to. I switched a few years back and had very little problems, but then i also used Linux quite a bit along side Windows. If you live in a purely Windows environment and switch I suppose it could be a bit of a shock. But different can sometimes be better when you take the time to get used to it.

[The Noble Robot]

Everyone is reading way too much into that comment. I'm sure what he meant was that things didn't *work.* Like importing and printing and the other examples he gave.

And different, sometimes, is just different, not better or worse.

[ecotopian--2008]

This article is a waste of bandwidth. What a whiner! The Mac isn't a PC, duh! If you move into a new house, do you expect to find everything in the same place as the old? The rest of your complaints are mostly about lack of 3rd party support, which isn't Apple's problem. For example, HP didn't bother to write a good printer driver for the Mac. How is this Apple's problem?

[jpintobks]

You have to get use to dive a fast and sophisticated car. Porsches are not for everybody. I am sure you will love it once you get the idea. It is great to be a year plus ahead. Apple has done it for me for many years.

Also it is strange that customer service has not treat you well. I have never experience any problem.
Good luck. Jorge NYC

[wj9999999]

<i>Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own fashion.</i>
- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Chapter 1, first line

A bad craftsman blames his tools. The issue here has very little to do with neither Mac or PC. Rafe is an AMATEUR computer user. He is here to represent the voice of AMATEUR computer users. Let?s suppose Rafe is a professional computer user. This article would have been about: <i>Switching from PC to Mac? Here are the possible obstacles and this is how to resolve them stress free style!</i>

If we continue our speculation game: <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/156303/mac_gains_on_windows.html">Mac Gains on Windows</a> Rafe was asked by an undercover MS agent to write an manipulative article. To take this offer means Rafe will have enough to pay off his mortgage. So he went ahead and did it. Rafe might as well be a pro, like the Superman, he has to put on nerdy glasses, shirt and tie, so that he blends in and gets what he wants.

Regarding computing frustrations, here is my contribution:

Every amateur pianist comes to me and almost every one of them wants to play ?Fur Elise? by Beethoven. They all complain that they don?t play as beautifully as the recordings. They are usually self-taught and they ALL have bad habits, different from person to person. So I make simple suggestions for correcting their bad habits. Averagely, 1 out of 20 kids works out his attitude and adjusts to my suggestions. He eventually succeeds and feels happy. The other 19 can?t see their bad habits to begin with, and blames something new every week. They either remain unhappy or eventually quit piano.

At times, I?ve had to perform/lecture on pianos of unspeakable conditions in various countries. It?s never the piano?s fault. It?s always about the flexibility of the performer. With the exception of a hardware break down, there are no bad computers. There is always lousy computing habits and/or lousy computer user. Computes and software are not intelligent creatures like us. They are robots await your orders. You give confusing orders. They can only give you confusing results.

Purely personal:

For the same reason I prefer a Steinway to a Yamaha, I prefer my Macbook Pro to my Sony Vaio.

[bweinman]

I switched about two years ago. It was frustrating for about three months and now I'll never go back. There is a "zen" difference, the paradigms and metaphors are different. But ultimately it works a lot better (and now I let my laptop sleep, I could never do that with my thinkpad).

Like you, most of my frustrations were from lacking third-party support (and I had to give up my HP printer for a Canon - the HP drivers for Mac are beyond pitiful). But ultimately, I am far happier with Macs than PCs. I rarely even use Windows (under Parallels) any more.

Hang in there.

--Bill

[lkrupp]

Mr. Needleman,

You lost your credibility when you referred to Mac users as "nuts". It is obvious that you expected OS X to operate in precisely the same way as Windows; and when it doesn't, it's somehow defective or deficient. How prescient of you.

Have you ever talked to a Mac user who made the switch to Windows? Changing platforms is a major pain in the rear regardless of which platform you come from. But you were apparently surprised when files created by Windows, using Windows applications, didn't magically transfer to a completely different operating system without issues. Fancy that. Oh, and to bring that point home, there's this company called Intuit who makes a product called Quicken. Seems they have a utility available to quickly and easily convert an OS X Quicken datafile to the Windows format. But guess what? Windows users moving to the OS X platform are simply out of luck. There is no utility for them. Why is that do you think?

So, bottom line, your screed is simply another uninformed Apple hit piece. I wonder why Apple's market share is on the rise if it's so traumatic to move from Windows to OS X.

[compudoc318]

apples shares have been "on the rise" for 20 years and even with all the fake negative stuff about vista and ipods everywhere, yet still under 10% share.....ol

[The Noble Robot]

"It is obvious that you expected OS X to operate in precisely the same way as Windows;"

Saying that is nuts. What make it so obvious, exactly? Was it because he didn't sing from the heavens about his switching experience? Was it because he's not as hip as Justin Long, and thus, just doesn't "get it?" Since his experience wasn't exactly as Apple advertises, it must be obvious!

"Have you ever talked to a Mac user who made the switch to Windows?"

Well, yes actually, but the point is that there just aren't enough Mac users for that number to be significant.

[DatabaseDoctor]

Having tried this exact switch a few years ago, I too was frustrated by the Macs lack of "polite integration". Office issues, Outlook issues, but especially the Macs "polluting" of my network drives with "dot files". Just isn't worth the effort to switch.

So it would be nice to have Macs around, until the become corporate friendly, can't go there.

[declan00]

Rafe: You make some reasonable points. Here are responses from the perspective of someone who began using Macs in the mid-1980s, then went down the Unix path in the 1990s followed by Windows for a few years. I'm typing this with a MacBook Pro right now.

Re: User interface. This is a matter of personal taste; I find OS X superior to Windows. In terms of your menu point, I wish Apple had taken the menu structure from NeXTstep (they did adopt using the right-mouse-button to pull up a menu, at least).

Re: E-mail. You're describing a weakness of Entourage. I use Thunderbird inside CNET without any problems, but I don't care as much about calendaring as you do.

Re: Aventail. I agree that Aventail isn't the best solution around, but I only have to reboot about once a month on my OS X machine at home. Inconvenient, yes, but only mildly.

In general, it seems that you're essentially being required to use certain apps because our employer mandates them, or you already have the existing printer or media server. Unless you're willing to wait for updates or find workarounds or rethink the way you like to do things, that may make you something other than the perfect candidate for a seamless switchover...

[D3vildog699]

Finally someone willing to admit that OS GUI is PERSONAL CHOICE!

[WheresMyLisa]

What's the beef about HP printers? I have a 1200 and a 1012. Never had a driver issue with either of them. ????

[bgnm]

It's always amusing to see the Windows fanboys dismiss the Mac as a play rather than a work platform. Aren't the gamers pretty much tied to Winders?

As for work on a Mac, I'm a scientist. In 20 years of personal Mac ownership and Windows/DOS at work back to beginning as well as extensive Unix experience, I freely switch among these operating systems without even having to think about it. Almost every file compatibility issues I've ever had is pure Microsoft. Most of those problems are with Windows files that do not behave consistently on other Windows computers. Why does PowerPoint display a picture or a video correctly on one Windows machine and not on another? The reason is that the underpinnings of Microsoft applications software are a hodgepodge of non-standards and often very buggy. For example, videos linked to PowerPoint files may display as a white screen because a Microsoft engineer several generations of PowerPoint ago limited the path to a linked file to 128 characters. That bug is still present in the latest and greatest Windows version. Microsoft releases new versions of its products, but rarely fixes bugs such as this.

By choice, I do virtually all my real work on Macs. There is not a single thing I need to do that I can do with Windows and not with with Macs. But I do it faster, better, and yes, cheaper with Macs.

[pithenumber]

Apple advertises it as a play platform

Gamers are tied to Windows, game makers aren't going to make Mac games until Apple makes a Mac that has serious graphics horsepower